Willow's starter pack for indoor plant care came into my life at just the right time. I'm by no means an expert in horticulture, but I'm proud of having kept alive a poinsettia through six Christmases. It must be a record!
The festive favourite had thrived in our old house under the skylights. I'd even hooked up an elaborate drip to water (but not overwater) its pot during times away.
Sadly, it didn't survive for long following a house move last year. A new location. Different light and temperature. And my attention distracted by DIY and fixing up all the problems that came with a new place.
But two house plants, legacies from the last place, clung to life. Orlando the dwarf orange tree, displaced to the patio, and a cactus that I'd nearly killed when it was young by leaving it somewhere too shaded. They were neglected, peaky, and in urgent need of some TLC. The poor old dwarf orange tree was close to waterlogged, too, as I would soon find out.
The Willow plant sensor helps you out by monitoring four essential conditions that all plants need to thrive: light, water, humidity and temperature. By separating out these components to give your plan an overall happiness score, measured as a percentage which makes it easy to digest at a glance, you can hone in on where there is room for improvement. That may be providing water, more or less light, nutrients, better soil or a new pot. And as your plant's ecosystem is in a constant state of flux, having a sensor constantly measuring its climate and feeding back to you in easy digests is incredibly helpful. The sensor is battery-powered and is said to last around twelve months (I haven't tested it for duration!) but it can easily be replaced. It works alongside a hub that connects to your wi-fi and an app you can install on your mobile device. Give it a day (less in my experience) and you'll soon start receiving notifications as the sensor gets to work.
The app is pretty smart at identifying your plant. You can search for it if you know the name, or take a photo and have the closest matches listed. There is a limited number of plants in the library, but almost certainly something close by genus or family. For Orlando, I selected the Citrus X Sinensis – orange tree. There are many thousands of cacti and a good few dozen listed, but the echeveria is an exact or very close match to the one that was on death's door that I'm now slowly reviving.
Life gets busy, so having the notifications blink on my screen is a blessing. It means I have to think about my plants every day, at least once, and check how they are doing if action is called for. If you start digging into the care info and history tabs in the app, you can find it opens up a whole host of other possibilities. Difficulty getting the sensor to register water in the soil led me to discover that the cactus was crying out to be repotted in a richer soil that holds more moisture.
Meanwhile, Orlando the dwarf orange tree was hating life on the patio and every morning I was notified that the poor thing was far too cold (it's been an unseasonably cool April/May). But I couldn't bring it indoors in a pot overgrown with weeds. Taking advice from the app, I repotted both plants last weekend, and brought the dwarf orange tree indoors. It is thriving on the other side of the bifold doors and the regular notifications were soon much less worrying. Meanwhile, the cactus preferred the new soil and a bit of proper food, but the sensor indicated it was still too bright on the window ledge. I've moved him beside the orange tree to a window with a blind that I can lower when it gets too bright. Hey presto, the notifications and the plant's overall happiness score shot up!
I'm delighted to report that both plants are now thriving, which is testament to the fact that Willow really does work if you are diligent and pay attention to your plant's needs, and make the little changes to its environment that will help it to stay comfortable. There are tiny, pale green, waxy little leaves growing all over the dwarf orange tree, which I'm overjoyed to see as I wasn't sure if it was dead when I repotted it only a week or so earlier. Seeing my plant's health improve and new life grow has been great for mindfulness. I haven't tried this app with youngsters, but I imagine it would be a useful way of helping them to learn to take responsibility for looking after living things.
When I wasn't originally able to get the sensor to measure moisture (the water was draining through the soil rather than soaking into it) customer support was super speedy, helpful and friendly in response. In fact, the design of the hardware, in dark green, is appealing on the eye, and the app is well-designed and easy to navigate. It is an immensely nurturing, appealing consumer experience from start to finish.
Although this is a technology review, I'm not a massive consumer of tech and become fairly easily bamboozled setting up new devices. The on-screen guidance is easy to follow, ensuring a competent level of technical know-how will ensure you have the monitor, sensor(s) and app up and running in no time at all. Probably around five minutes. Once set up, it's amazing how quickly Willow becomes part of daily life. Although it's more time online if you're careful to limit that, it's a great way of keeping you connected to the natural world around you.
I'm now pondering more sensors (you can connect up to 40 to your hub) and that means more indoor plants, and more lives to care for. Depending on how in-depth you want to go with Willow, you can dive into articles, tutorials, blogs and videos on the app, all of which can help you with tailored sessions on orchids (notoriously tricky) to drooping peace lilies, seasonal support, taking cuttings and treating for pests. Without doubt, I'm much more invested in caring for my indoor plants than I was before Willow came into my life, and my dwarf orange tree and cactus would be dead without Willow's timely intervention. I'm now hoping I can repeat the miracle I achieved for my beloved and much-missed poinsettia with these two, and add more plants to my collection!
This is an ideal way to treat yourself if you're serious about taking plant care to the next level. Willow would also make an ideal gift for the person in your life who needs a little encouragement to help their plants to thrive. The Plant With Willow Starter Pack is available for £34.99 at Plantwithwillow.co.uk.
